Pakistan accuses India of trying to undermine Indus Waters Treaty

Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday (Dec 19) accused India of making sustained efforts to undermine the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), saying that the current material breaches by India are targeted at the heart of the agreement. Dar was speaking at what he described as an "urgent media briefing for the diplomatic corps" in Islamabad.

“We witnessed in April this year India’s unilateral abeyance of the Indus Waters Treaty… But what we are witnessing now is material breaches by India that strike at the heart of the Indus Waters Treaty with escalating consequences both for regional stability and the sanctity of international law,” he said.

His statement came a day after Pakistan sought clarification from India through a letter over the variation in the flow of the Chenab River.

Earlier, in September, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif raised sharp objections over India’s decision to place the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance during his address to the United Nations General Debate. He warned that Pakistan would defend what he described as the inalienable rights of its people over the waters, adding that any breach of the treaty would be viewed as an act of war.

India has put the Indus Waters Treaty on abeyance as one of the counter-measures against Pakistan in the wake of the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed 26 lives, mostly tourists. Stating its position after the Move in New Delhi in a clear message to Islamabad, "Terror and talks cannot go together; water and blood cannot flow together."

The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank and signed in September 1960, divided control of the rivers between India and Pakistan, giving India the eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, and Pakistan the western rivers Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.